Why invest in Broken Hill Prospecting Limited?

Ownership and ‘single’ region focus: Broken Hill Prospecting Limited (“BPL”) is the 100% owner of several large and near-surface cobalt deposits located near Broken Hill in western NSW. Other projects include future sulphuric acid production as a direct flow-on from cobalt processing and considerable potential for new heavy mineral sand (Ti, Zr) deposits south of Broken Hill. BPL is a Broken Hill focused company.

Accessibility, location and infrastructure are important: BPL’s cobalt deposits are potentially open-cut mines close to excellent infrastructure. They are accessible by all-weather road, near electricity lines, located a few hundred metres from the transcontinental railway and less than 25 kilometres from Broken Hill (a mining centre with excellent mining support, technical and professional personnel as well as community facilities)

Rising demand for cobalt: BPL consider that the increasing use for cobalt in future technology advances such as battery development for rechargeable automobile batteries, super alloys, aircraft, space technology, wind turbines and solar energy will see a rapid growth in cobalt demand and an increasing interest in BPL’s large and well located cobalt deposits.

Production bottleneck of cobalt production: Cobalt mine production is dominated by bi-product copper mines (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and nickel deposits. BPL offers an opportunity to invest in future cobalt production with low political and technical risk.

Advantage over laterite cobalt deposits: Because the Thackaringa cobalt mineralisation occurs within pyrite (FeS2), it can be readily concentrated to a pyrite concentrate which contains about 0.5% cobalt. This is not possible for laterite deposits which typically have cobalt grades of <0.05%.

Sulphuric acid could be a valuable co-product: Further processing of the concentrate to produce cobalt will also provide sulphuric acid and high iron residue. Sulphuric acid is widely used in manufacture of fertiliser and in numerous industries as well as for many mineral processing operations and will add considerable value to future development scenarios. Other possible co-products include sodium feldspar and quartz which could be used in porcelain/tile manufacturing.

Heavy mineral sands (HMS) could be a rewarding new venture: In mid 2014, Broken Hill Minerals Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BPL, applied for five Exploration Licences which have a combined area of 858 square kilometres and are located south of Broken Hill. These contain 20 known titanium and zirconium deposits and BPL is planning to take advantage of increasing HMS prices and processing technology developments to identify a near-surface economically viable project.

Potential for zinc lead and silver: BPL’s exploration at Thackaringa has located 13 potential occurrences of Broken Hill style mineralisation (rich in zinc, silver and lead). Several of these have best potential for underlying mineralisation which may be of economic grade. One drill hole at the Railway prospect intersected base metal mineralisation containing up to 3.5% zinc and 15g/t silver over several metres width.